Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-09-10
IN THE SALT SURF.
PRENTICE MILFORD WRITES ENTER
TAINiNGLY OF HIS EXPERIENCE.
Clinging to Life line Till One IL
Pounded BLACK and BIue-The Better
Way L. to Master the surf aud Make
II y Plas thing.


bathing possibly you cling on 10 a lin,
where you are pounded and banged hlacl
and blue with each incoming breaker. and
your arms strained and twisted from hold
ing TO it the full weight Of YOUR body wher
swept or your feet If You can swim nj
all aud have the least bit of confidence IL
Your ahiIty To keep yourself afloat bey ond
Your depth. vnu are much safer and certainly '
much more a-rceably situated when Just out
side the curl Of the breaker II tumbles i,
shore than when YOU place yourself under o,
against the masS of falling water, to bt
knocked down. tumhled about and hall
siranglei with sand and salt water Once
having learned the .knack" of keeping your
self outside the tumble of the wave il
breaks, You will be surprised and de-
lighted at the ease with which you can sus
tain yourself un surf running pretty high.
You find then the threatening breaker play
thing and not a terror. You are lifted up
high in the air within a few feet OF the shore
and within foot from the curl of the
wave as il makes its final break. yet
with scarcely any effort You keep out
side the tumble and meet the next
surge, which kindly lifts You on its back and
lets You down into the deep. watery hollow.
So now You may see any day gentlemen and
ladies riding the waves off Sisscouset beach,
and the Atlantic ocean comes in here with
more Of a boom than at Rockaway.
The "undertown won't carry you far out TO
sea The "undertow" will carry YOU only a
few feet from the shore. The -undertow" is
simply the wash or backward flow Of water
off the incline Of the beach. and its strength
Is proportlonate Il the steepness Of such in
clination. Its strength is ali gone when 1t
meets the deeper water a few feet from the
shore. On our ocean shores Won will generally
find a tide or current setting along the
coast or parallel 10 il one way or the other.
and If You will watch chip or hoard thrown
just outside the breakers You will see u 't it
floats along shore. but does not go out 70 sea.
and your body will, III the same situ .ti1n,
float in the same direction if you will let It
alone.
Some ocean beaches like this at 'Sconset
shelve downward or deepen sud ienly at q
few feet distant from the waters edge.
Where the waves break they pound or dig a
trench Of varying depth, according To the
strength ~ the mass of wafer constantly
falling like a hammer on one spot.
Just inside or inshore Of this trench
the rush Of back water from the
spent wave, or -undertow,' Is great
est, while outside of il there is hardly
any such rush of water at all IL Won ars
even swept of by an ''undertow," and find no
bottom for your feet to touch, ami You cannot
swim. think any good swimmer will agree
with NE in telling You to extend your arms
Is widely apart as possible, letting them lay
like two fins OF fappers on the waters sur-
face. Keep cool, or as cool as You can, and
don't begin to fiuster or kick or struggle, for
90 sure You do Your head will go under
water. The less you do with your body the
better. The more composed and calm Your
breath the better II bit Of water does
wash over your head, let il wash Your head
will come out again ANY swimmer can keep
himself on the waters surface with the merest
play of his hands or feet, providing he doesn't
want to get ahead, and think YOU can do the
same thing if you will only make yourself
think ynn can before going into the water.
Its scare ami consequent struggling that
browns people, ss much water. The human
bods almost floats through its own buoyancy.
and tine easier and gentler the motion of your
fins the easier II floats
When on your feet lean your body up
Agains: the uniertow when it is running
back from the beach. Thus YOU brace up
against being swept off by it. Ii you lean in
the same direction it is running, as most
people at first invoiuntarily do. You are put
ting your own weight end muscle i'll the scale
against yourself and helping the water sweep
you of.
Lean your body the other way or out to
sesward, when you see billow coming.
Don't wait for il to come and curl over, but
step out and meet it before it curls and
tumbles. Then instead of being knocked
down and rolled over ami over You
will be ever SO gently lifted by it of
your feet and possibly set upon them
agair. II you stand in water up 10
your shoulders, You may no: when the billow
has passed by find bottom with YOUR toes
Then spread your arms and keep still Or, If
You are in a surf up to your waist ana You
zee bllow coming as high as your head,
Jump up Just before il reaches you Then
half its force passes under You. When You
dive through one Of these advancing masses
OF water. YOU oppose only a few inches of
your body TO its force. When You stand up
or try TO run from it You are opposing the
whole OF your body 20 it, and the more sur
face you give for it to operate on, the bigger
the bang 1t will give you
do not imply that these suggestions will
make a skiilful surf swimmer. There is .
''knack" Of coping with the breakers and
eventually becoming almost as much al home
in them as a fish, which can come only Of
practice and that certain indescribable intui-
ton or self teaching process, whereby one
becomes the expert dancer, the expert marks
man, the expert rider. the expert in any
thing. and II is a sense which no person can
completely give another; no more than you
can give me ear for music, if am an
owl-or if l, being an owl. csn give you the
ability to see a mouse III the grass at night
Stick to the determination to get this knack
and YOU will get it. and You will not then be
obliged TO stand ciinging TO a lire covering
and cringing, the scorn OF each incoming
wave as il kicks You contemptuously out IF
its way.
OF course there is danger TO inexperienced
people from heavy undertow, and when
they find themselves being carried off by it
they generally do all they can by their strug-
giles and movements, without aim or object,
to bring about a bad result, all of Us are
apt to do III periods Of fright. But the under
tow is not an intcrmnable unending cur
rent stretching 50 far out TO sea. Its whole
force is spent few feet from tine shore. Just
as the force of a mill stream is spent after it
has rushed through the sIuice. and the same
water appears in the quiet pond below. To
get the best Of a dangerous thing we want TO
know as nearly as possible what it is and
" hat il isn't
There are few very able and very pretty
girl swimmers here, who handle even heavy
breakers either Oh or otf shore almost as
gracefully a A seai or porpoiSe. and whose
red CAPPED heads may lie seen 10y the watchers
on shore rising and falling. appearing and
disappearing ia n surge where even a 'Sconset
fisherman would require all his strength and